thanks so much. airasia s ceo was quick to reach out to the families. tony fernandes tweeting my heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in 8501. on behalf of airasia my condolences to all. let s those the needian city of surabaya where the flight originated and where distraught family members have been huddling these last agonizing days. cnn s senior producer david molko is there with more. hi david. reporter: good evening from here in surabaya, the crisis center at the airport. earlier this is where families of the 162 people on board that flight passengers and crew came to hear the news that it was very likely that their loved ones would not be coming home. carol, tonight this is fundamentally a country in mourning. this is a human tragedy, the country of indonesia has not seen this in some time. and you talk to family members here we just spoke to a couple
they had four family members on board, including two grandchildren traveling for holiday to singapore and now they re hearing with almost certainty that their relatives will not be coming home and that they will not see them again. it s interesting, though. while they are losing hope there is still some hope. the couple was telling me look there s still we believe that there s still a chance. there s a 5% chance that at least one of our family members might have survived. carol? where are the family members waiting? well carol, there s about 80 of the families here 80 of the passengers on board were fro surabaya itself this city of three million people in east java. the others from various parts of indonesia and outside indonesia so some of them have gone home. as i mentioned, the couple i just talked about, they re from about three hours outside of surabaya. they ve been here for the past three days hoping waiting and praying for good news. now they re at a nearby hotel,
countries as well. a british national was traveling with his two-year-old daughter another man was traveling with four members of his family. cnn s rosa flores joins me now with more on the passengers aboard that flight. it s a really tough time for their families and for their friends as they get all of this news i talked to the principal of the surabaya cambridge school and she knows five people on board the flight. she tells me three of them her students, the other two her students parents. here s what she had to say. she s a beautiful girl and always has fun and jokes with her friend. were really so shocked with this news and we re praying and then we are waiting for good news. she said shocked and also they are also praying, she says.
the airline has put them up and trying to provide information and take care of them. the interesting thing, and i ve been hearing this from many of the family members i have been speaking to is they feel like that they are getting as much information as possible from officials. you ll republican too, the president, joko wee dodo was here in surabaya. he met with family members, spoke to media and said something very touching. they are searching and trying to recover any human remains, parts of the airplane out there. the emphasis is on taking care of the next of kin on those on board and he told them i feel your loss i pray that you find the strength to be able to face this. and that s the mood we re hearing tonight. it s one of loss and potentially great loss but also one of strength. carol? david molko reporting live from indonesia, thanks so much. still to come in the newsroom, the final moments of